Sweet Renunions

Another email, I am finally all caught up!

Dear Family,

Just a few beautiful happenings from the week. On Monday, Soeur Walker and I adventured into Paris and I took her to go see le Sacre Coeur cathedral. It is one of the best views of Paris from the top! And so well visited. I think I must've heard at least 8 different languages walking from the bottom of the hill to reach the top. Imagine the classic scene from Marie Poppins when she is on the roof top looking over the city and that would be a little bit of the image you could picture in your mind.

This last week was Stake Conference! The Adult Session was here in Evry and the general session was in a stadium seating performing arts center in a small ville just past Melun (not too far from here). And I was able to see my lovely branch from Tours! They had rented a huge bus and drove up earlier that morning to make it there. The Anthenou's (Rachel from California), the Kehli's, and, yes, the Taylors, our lovely Tahitian sister and all the rest of the branch. I love them! It was like no time had passed when we saw each other and I got a nice little run down on the news of the ward. 4 babies to be born this year!

Elder Kearon, one of the presiding general authorities for Europe, spoke to us at the conference. He's from England and grew up in Saudi-Arabia (is that cool or what). So it was kind of fun hearing british humor and, quite frankly, being able to hear his talk twice through! (English and French translations). He talked about changed and he shared two very powerful experiences from his life. One of them, he talked about vacationing in Saudi-Arabia next to an oasis. He learned that the oasis came from a natural pipe line leading to the source. When they drill in just the right spot, the water, under its own pressure, will come up out of the ground. He likened this to ourselves and how we can be sure, spiritually, we are drilling in the right spot.

The other, He shared about a weekly call he made home to his family while out for another meeting he was attending. His wife was telling them about their week and how they went out for a walk one day and his little daughter fell and scraped her knees. The first thing she did was cry out and say, " I want Daddy! He would be SO sad right now!" 

He said, that, one, he WAS so sad for her. But that, first, he was so happy that she cried out for him. Because she knew that her Daddy loved her.

The analogy was very clear and powerful. He talked about us, in our need, crying out for our Father in Heaven. And although, he is not physically right there for us right now, he feels what we feel with us. "We believe in a God that weeps." And he wants to heal us. Which is exactly why he has given us simple, clear, directions to guide us. Pray, reading our scriptures, going to church..."It has always been the simple things. But sometimes, we try to complicate it. Don't complicate it. Understand that you are a child of God."

That same day, Soeur Tehoiri and her companion came in and we met up with them to visit an old ami that she had met when she was first serving in Evry. Her name is Candida. She was actually the first person she contacted when she was here in France and she'd been taught for the sisters for a while, but when they took the sisters out for a few months after, she'd gotten a little lost between the cracks. And so we met up with and she was so so so happy to meet us and couldn't wait for us to start teaching her again. I still wonder just how that happens to work? I don't know! It's obviously divine intervention.

And she came with us to the conference! Both of them! She loved it! After the adult session, I went up with her to Elder Kearon to thank him for his talk and to help translate for her. He asked how she'd come to meet the sister missionaries and I explained to him that she was here because of a sister missionary that had remembered her.

Needless to say, the conference was pretty life-changing. Elder Kearon's also going to be speaking at a mission conference for us at the end of April-- yessssss!

Things are finally starting to warm up a little here and I'm praying for a no scarf day sometime in the future. I love you all! The Church is true. And time flies by-- 9 months out and 9 months to go! Try not to blink for too long!

Living and loving Paris! Soeur Hopkins

​It's the shoe that makes the photo all the better....

xoxo,

Melissa

Captain Moroni and Other Superheroes

Another email, emails are the best!!

Dear Family,

Ok, so this week I'm having a bit of some challenges uploading pictures, but I wanted to be sure that I wasn't neglecting to share all of the wonderful pictures of the week. 

Yes, I finally did get out to see the Jardin du Luxembourg--which is a cute hangout for all of the families in Paris. They had a massive park, with a huge playground, several games of soccer going on, tennis matches, older men playing the french version of the italian game of booles and, yes, several chess tournaments. It was so fun to walk around and see all the different groups of people gathering together focusing in on their game. That was a real taste of french culture at its finest.

And then, we decided to take a couple of stops down the metro line to see the Arc de Triomphe and we finally climbed to the top! Get this- its free with a passeport and visa! It was the most beautiful sight looking all around us at the rest of Paris and so worth it. We are so super blessed to being serving where we are!

And to explain the pictures. The Family Girard (who we spent Christmas with) is moving out of our ward this week to go to Nantes, so we took a couple of pictures with them and their girls. (Notice how their daughter Inos is sooo excited to smile for the picture...haha. We got her to warm up after a minute.)

This week we were so swamped with our schedule and found ourselves on trajet for most of the day taking a bus from one place to the next. And we had the chance to visit several families in our ward and get to know them better. One of the nights, we visited the Family Tchikaya. They have three kids and two of them are teenagers. We talked about heros and super-powers. (Yes, I promise that we weren't preaching false doctrine). And we talked about the story of Captain Moroni who was so strong and firm in his beliefs. I started elaborating on the story of him tearing off a peice of clothe to create the title of liberty. Soeur Walker will tell you that I was just getting so into telling the story, I'm not sure wear all of my elaborate french vocabulary words started formulating. Words like "drapeau", "vetement", "bataille" and others were just flying out of my mouth. It was so fun making the scriptures come to life for them.One of the kids even commented that he didn't know this story was in the Book of Mormon. Now, he does.

This week, we went and visited a few less active members. We invited Soeur Levrot to come along with us for the rdv and she met us at the church with her catholic friend to go teach! We walked through the rain and showed up to this member's apartment and I think she was so pleasantly suprised to see we'd brought a little company. We had a wonderful visit and it was so fun watching these three women just go on talking to each other. It goes to show that no matter what our religious denomination, activity in the church or current life situations may be, we are children of God. We have a lot more things in common than we have different.

It's a beautiful week in Paris. And it is such a wonderful blessing. I mean, who really gets to say that? I love this work and these people so much. They mean so much to me and I really feel like they are becoming a part of who I am and what I do. Heaven must be much like that.

Sincerely,

Soeur Hopkins

xoxo,

Melissa

She Came!!

Another email what a treat!!!

Dear Friends and Family,

Ok, so I realize that this is a pretty ambigious heading to start off my email with. So what on earth could I be referring to by simply saying, "She came!" ? 

I find it somewhat ironic that after talking about the difficulties of getting people coming to church (my analogy of performing a show at the circus), we finally got one of our amis, Stephanie, to come to church! And not only that, but we got her to come with her 3 kids. A little bit of fellowshipping by members, encouragement, a car with two carseats and some faith later...and she came to church and loved it! (Pictures to come next week).

I couldn't help but just sit there at church beaming with happiness and joy for her. The entire ward just swooped in and received her with love, warmth and welcome. It really is wonderful to tell people about the blessings of the gospel and the church in their lives, but until they experience it for themselves, there really isn't any other way to explain it. 

Many a wonder experiences this week, going out to teach someone specific, the rdv falling through and then something impromptu follows. We ended finding some really cool new people to teach!

On one particular day, we'd set up a rdv with someone and it ended up not working out. So while we were out there in their neighborhood, we decided to talk to some of her neighbors...lots of real gems. One man promptly swings open his door and, with no hesitations, says, "Please come in!" All I'm thinking is, "We haven't even introduced ourselves yet?" haha He was still very nice though. Another lady, after her cat ran out, told me "not to touch it" to which she commanded it back into the appartment. A sweet young mom poked her head out the door and told us to come back. And then at the bottom stairs, we came across a man named Allen and his 90 year-old mother, Lucy who invited us in. As soon as he saw our tags, he said, "Oh, mormons." We ended up teaching them the entire first lesson about the restoration of the church. Lucy told us all about her experiences growing up going to catholic school and living during the aftermath of world war II. It felt so great being able to spend a moment with them and bear testimony. They even gave us something to eat!

Keep on Keeping on! Embrace the Week and really take advantage of every opportunity to love, lift and strengthen!

With Love,

Soeur Hopkins

P.s. I had to get a library card and the librarian tried to spell my first name. Nice try...it was never easy explaining it to anyone. haha

Birthday in France

Happy Birthday lovely!!!

Dear Family and Friends, 

Voilà! It's been such a good, action packed week here. I had a great birthday that included cake, crepe cake, mexican food (foreign aisle), a game of ping pong and teaching an awesome lesson at the Soeur Stevine's home with her friend Kelly. Kelly is so wonderful. A mom of two beautiful little girls and is facing some real "Goliaths" in her life right now. We gave her a book of mormon with our testimonies included and our favorite scriptures highlighted. It makes me smile seeing that she's totally holding it up in our picture! No better way to spend a birthday!

Friday, we went to the chapel at St.Merri where we had a Soeur conference for all of the sister missionaries which was awesome and I got to see a lot of the other lovely soeurs that I've served with! No nails and hair being done this year around...haha. I'm sure Soeur Babin posted videos or pictures on FaceBook. 

They other day, Soeur Walker and I were walking to church when we crossed passed with a member. At first he asked if we were the sisters and I very cautiously asked, " Are you a member?" When he said "yes," the guards went down and we started talking to him. For about 10 minutes, he was telling us about his conversion story. He said that it was him who searched out the missionaries because he saw something "different." He was aetheist all his life, but somehow something inside of him just woke up when he began learning about the gospel. He told us about the opportunity he had to hear the Apostle, Elder Bednar speak and how he received the answer to a question he'd had on his mind. It was the spirit who was teaching and inspiring the meeting. I loved listening to him the whole way to the church!

When he was talking about the difference he saw, it reminded me of the lyrics to a song by Francesca Bastilli called, "Unusual." It's about living with faith and living joyfully!

"I call you Brave, Unique and Set Apart; A Masterpiece, a Work of Art; Living out What You Believe; Being Who You're Made to Be; I love to see the way that you are so unusual- I think You're Beautiful!"

What more can I say? I love you. Have a wonderful week and stay warm!

Soeur Hopkins

 Our investigator Axcelle! She is going to school and studying law and business. She is the sweetest girl from Cote D'Ivore!

Soeur Tro! With her son Nolan. We had so much fun watching him show us his judo moves haha

Elder Ireland taught our last district meeting because he's going home this week-to Canada

Our district. Timed photos are never easy..

We found this awesome ping pong table in a park that we passed by so decided to play a quick game with sticks and a bottle cap...pure fun

At Soeur Stevine's home with her friend Kelly who we got to teach! Another timed photo..

And I got to see Soeur Hansen at Soeur Conference in Paris!

Needless to say, it's been a sweet week!

And the crepe cake the Elder's made and shoved into our mailbox

Lots of love,

Melissa

A Fantastic End of an 8 Week Transfer

Emails are some of my favorite things!

Dear Family and Friends,

Life is good--oh so good. And it only gets better and sweeter every day. We are coming to an end of an 8 week transfer that has been one of the best yet.

I have been learning so much about how to do and NOT to do missionary work. How to really Help others. But so as to not make this a journal entry or a pep talk, I will only talk about amis.

 

We just started teaching this young Haitian girl named Stephanie. She has 3 small kids. Apparently Soeur Walker and Tippett had first met her and had been trying to get into contact with her for weeks. But one day, we were passing by with one of the members, and she told us to come back in 10 minutes. SHE LET US IN!! And since then, we've been seeing her 2 to 3 times a week. It. is. awesome. We had the mission president's wife call us up to come and study with us one morning in the past week. And she taught us sooo much about teaching really well. Our lessons with Stephanie have been going soooo well and she is really loving to learn. It is sweet--so sweet.

 

Beatrice is a friend of the Lukojis, our ward mission leader and his wife. Their kids go to the same school and one day while Sr. Lukoji was talking to her about a difficult situtation she was dealing with, she shared a scripture with her from the Book of Mormon. Beatrice became curious. She asked for a Book of Mormon and three other copies to give to her friends. WHAT? :) Since then she's been coming to church and practically monopolizing the gospel principles class haha. She's wonderful. And she has a gift for loving people. Whenever we see her, she just makes me feel like the BEST person in the world!

 

And then there's ward members like Soeur Stevine that make you want to get up everymorning and go share the gospel with everyone in the world, their cat and next door neighbor. She goes out with us teaching, calls amis for us, shares the gospel with her friends, invites everyone to church and activities and is all-around one of the most loving and understanding and bold people I know. And she's hilarious! If only she knew just how awesome she is. These kind of people make it all so much more worth.

 

Meanwhile, the biggest challenge of all is getting our amis to come to church! And I'm sure all of you returned missionaries know exactly what I'm talking about...I feel like I have to coordinate some fantastic circus feat trying to find people rides, help them wake up or even sometimes show up at their front door step the morning of. Help out a sista-friend, set an alarm and go to bed ontime! I could read you all the scriptures I can find, but, really, the only way to get the blessings of church and keeping the sabbath holy is to do it! Monday is our real day of rest as missionaries, actually ;)

 

Mais voilà, there is a bird's eye view of things from here in Evry.

 

Fun Fact: Elizabeth Smart served her mission here back in 2010. Her name's all over the area book and a member showed me a picture of her. Pretty cool, huh?

 

Bonne semaine à tous! Stay warm. ;)

 

Soeur Hopkins

"It snowed! And that does't usually ever happen in Paris!

The missionaries of Evry: moi, Soeur Walker, Elder Ireland, Elder Jacobsen, Elder Carson and Elder Empy. Like our classic 90's boyband stances?"

The gospel is true and Jesus is the Christ :)

Much love,

Melissa

Welcome to Africa

Sorry it has taken me so long to update the blog, school just got crazy!!!

No worries family, all is well here in Paris and we are all safe.

 

Just the bits and peices that made life flavorful this week...

 

Last week we went into Paris and visited the Chateau de Vincennes. It was the most "worth it" place I've ever visited. The grounds were huge! It was its own independant city in the days that the kings and queens lived there. We hiked all the way up to the top of the tower of the Chateau and looked out over the rest of the city and the cathedral and the rest of the fortress. It was like being at the castle from the movie Ever After (with Drew Barrymore...it's a classic.)

 

Our STLs (sister trainer leaders) came to Evry for exchanges for a day. Soeur Hoskings and Hopkins and Soeur Waite and Walker...obviously it was meant to be because our names start with the same letters, right? haha. We had an awesome exchange and I was laughing my head off by Soeur Hoskings outrageous jokes..

 

And then our heating and hot water went out this week. So we got creative, borrowed a portable heater and boiled water to pour over heads to shower. "Welcome to Africa" as Soeur Hoskings would put it.

 

Honestly, things are going so well here in Evry. I've had some absolutely incredible experiences this week teaching and I've been writing them down in my journal to hang onto. I've been finding out that I've been finding out what my talents are in the process of using them.

 

This week, we were visiting a member's home and had dinner with them. After we shared a message with them, they turned to us and asked,"Is there anything More that we can do to share the gospel with our friends?" I was totally taken back at first by their directness. I had to think about it for a moment. We told them about how they could pray for experiences and opportunities to share with their family and friends. They could serve others, reach out to a friend, invite others to family home evenings, post messages on facebook, give a friend a Book of Mormon with your testimony inside, be prepared when the moment comes to talk about a principle or aspect of the gospel that has blessed them personally. There were so many ideas!

 

As soon as we got home, I sat down and started writing down all the ideas we could come up with. But I thought about it and realized that there are so many ways to share the love and light of gospel of Jesus Christ with those around us-- and there isn't a wrong way. But I wanted to start applying these things myself. I will be praying for those opportunities to share my knowlege of the gospel with my friends, family and those right around me. I Challenge You to do that too! Because you will find that you will be filled with so much JOY and so much LIGHT and so much LOVE that you will not being able to contain it. You will want to share it with everyone. You will find solutions to the problems that you are facing in life by going back to the basics of the gospel, sharing it and LIVING the blessings.

 

That is a promise that I can guarantee you.

 

I love you all and want to share with you my love and testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There are events that happen all around us that are out of our control, but the our relationship with God and Jesus Christ will forever be the rock and base that fortifies us and strengthens us in moments of peril and in moments of peace. I am so blessed, so blessed to be a member of the Church of Jesus Christ and I am so proud to wear the name of the Savior over my heart every day during this time I have here in France. God lives and loves all of His children. It is evident that there is no way that a group of young adult missionaries as young as 18 could go to all these nations, learn to speak languages and change people's lives in the way they do-- save it were that it was actually true and that God is with them and guides them. There is a living prophet today. His name is Thomas Monson. God continues to speak to us and love us and guide us through His prophets. That is our message and that is why I am here, right now. I invite you to know for yourself.

 

I hope you all have a fantastic week and remember to be grateful for the simple things-- like peanut butter (you can't really find it here...).

 

haha. As usual and Avec Amour,

 

Soeur Hopkins

Unfortunately I can't get the pictures that Bronte sent me into a good format to put on the blog if you want to see the pictures add yourself to her email list.

lots of love,

Melissa

Joy To the World!!

There was no email last week since Bronte was moving to Every! 

Hello Friends and Family!

So one way or another, you've found yourself included in this Christmas email because you are someone that has directly or indirectly blessed my life or the life of my family. Thank you.

If you do not already know it, it has been just over six months since I've been away from home and living in France as a full-time missionary and representative of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It has been one of the most fulfilling and remarkable things I have done in my life to serve others, teach them about the blessings of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and invite them to experience them for themselves. It's profoundly enliving.

Just a week ago, I was moved from the city of Tours (where I'd been serving for the past 6 months) to Evry, just outside of Paris. Once again, I found myself adjusting to the changes and the faster pace of life. New faces, new places, new companion, an area I don't know yet and a ward that is 3 times larger than the one I was last in. And the irony of it all is that it's Christmas week. No doubt, it's a lot different than what I would've pictured. And everything around me is so foreign to me. But the one thing that helps me to find my grounding is the fact that this is such a special moment and time of year that seems to dispel all of these differences and bring us to a stand still. In this moment there is peace.

<<For O how beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that is the founder of peace, yea, even the Lord, who has redeemed his people; yea, him who has granted salvation unto His people>> Mosiah 15:18, The Book of Mormon

Christ is that founder of peace. He is the good news. He is the Savior of the world who understands us personally and profoundly. God is our Father in Heaven who loves us and is aware of exactly where we stand.

In these past few weeks, I've seen this over and over again. The other day, we were on our way to visit a member and we stopped and talked to a woman named Ida. I asked her if she knew anything about our church and she hesitantly told us that she'd been there with her friends a couple of times. As we asked her about herself and bore our testimonies to her of Jesus Christ, her heart was so touched. Before we parted, we asked her if we could say a prayer with her. I asked her if we could pray for anyone that she knows and she asked, <<Please pray for my brother. He is sick with cancer and right now I'm on my way to see him in the hospital. .>> And so we did. And as we stood there praying together on behalf of Ida and her brother, I was filled with those feelings that can only come from Heavenly Father-- those feelings of peace, love and pure joy. And I know that she was too. As we parted, she stayed there for a moment and lingered long enough to smile at us and say, <<Que Dieu vous benisse.>> God bless you.

He is the good news. Through Him, we can experience the peace and power of His atonement in our lives. We can mend broken ties with a friend or family member, we can lift someone around us with words of love and encouragement, we can start over after we feel like we've made the same mistake over and over again. We can be filled with the kind of love that makes us want to share our testimony and faith in Jesus Christ with all those around us. We can become publishers of peace-- even disciples of Jesus Christ.

I wish you all the Best of Christmases full of the Spirit and Love of Christ. May God bless you this Christmas and always!

Sincerely,

Soeur Bronte Hopkins 

Bronte sent her Christmas card, but it is a pdf so I can't upload it, but know that she loves all of you and is so very happy on her mission!

Lots of love,

Melissa